odd problem with sound/internet related

[serano99]

This issue has started a few days ago for me when I attended a LAN @ a friend of mine...This is the problem:

I boot up my computer and everything runs smoothly. Sound is working just fine. I play music on itunes etc etc, up until I run ANYTHING that's internet related.

If I open ventrilo (3rd party voice communication program), I lose sound in a matter of seconds. If I open internet explorer, I lose sound. Here's the odd part: I go into my control panel -> sound and audio devices and the sound bar is ALL the way at the bottom. So naturally, I click it back up top and regain sound, BUT IT GOES BACK DOWN BY ITSELF! RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY EYES. It just gradually pulls itself down to 0 sound. Now, I've tried booting up my computer with my internet unplugged, and it sound works just fine. As soon as I plugged my net and click on internet explorer I lost it.

My specs are:

AMD athlon64 3500+
1GB Ram
Nvidia 7600 GT 128M
windows XP home SP1

I've tried re-installed my audio drivers (realtek audio97), downloaded new ones, all without success. I've checked my computer for spyware/viruses and nothing came up as well...

im so clueless....ANY help would be appreciated!